Lightning
by EmeraldTulip
Summary: The storm churned overhead, turning the city black. People screamed in the streets, fires raged, the swarms were everywhere. But it wasn't over quite yet. They still had hope. (For the November EF wiki contest; "The Attack" continuation.)


**Title:** _Lightning_

 **Rating:** T

 **Genre:** Adventure, family, friendship, drama, etc.

 **Characters:** The Elite Force plus Douglas

 **Pairing(s):** None, a few friendships

 **Summary:** The storm churned overhead, turning the city black. People screamed in the streets, fires raged, the swarms were everywhere. But it wasn't over quite yet. They still had hope. (For the November EF wiki contest.)

 **Warnings:** There's some implied character death, but not for main characters. For random citizens. Sorry, random citizens.

 **Notes:** For the November EF wiki contest. The prompt was "The Attack Continuation". Pretty self explanatory. I just wrapped up the story. Still on hiatus, but the deadline was today, so…

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

The storm churned overhead, turning the city black, and Chase could hear the screams piercing the air even from where he stood on the balcony of Davenport Tower. Muted, certainly, but definitely there. Gripping the railing so hard his knuckles turned white, he spoke softly, voice trembling only slightly.

"Are you sure there's nothing we can do?"

"No," Bree replied, her own words harsh and loud against the quiet air. "Not yet, anyway."

Chase nodded once but otherwise didn't move, eyes fixed on the horizon. Already, there was smoke rising into the sky, and the city's skyline was definitely missing a few spires. "Do you know where Oliver is?"

"No," Bree repeated, worry starting to seep into her tone. "He flew out to kill a few fires, but I haven't heard from him since."

Chase's grip on the railing tightened even more, somehow. He miraculously didn't break it. "And Kaz?"

As if on cue, the boy tumbled from the sky, ash trailing from his mission suit. Chase whipped around, and Bree stumbled back. Before either of the Davenport siblings could get a word out, Kaz held up a hand as he pulled himself to his feet. "I'm fine," he panted. "I managed to get some people out of a few of the attacked buildings, seeing as I'm fireproof, but I ran into another one of Rodissius's kids. Had to get out of there fast."

"Are you okay?" Bree asked him, looking at the embers on his shoulders.

Kaz shrugged, sending sparks flying to the ground. "Yeah. Where are the others? Is Oliver back yet?"

"We don't know where Oliver is," Chase recounted as he turned back to the railing, casting a glance at the burning building. He tried to ignore the look of fear and concern that washed over Kaz's face. "Skylar is down in mission command with Douglas. She managed to get Perry out of here. I don't really know where, but I think they mentioned something about getting Mr. Davenport."

"But isn't he in—?"

"California, yeah," Bree said. "But we have reinforcements there, and I don't think they'd mind coming over here under these circumstances. It'll take a while though—maybe a day at a minimum, and I don't think the city can hold out for that long."

"And what about Reese?" Kaz threw his hands up in frustration. "Roman and Riker, too. They know our whole layout, they're more dangerous than the others."

Chase shook his head, absently tracing a line with his finger on the rail. "Nothing."

"Actually," Bree interjected, "before we lost contact with Oliver, about half an hour ago, he said that he saw Riker out there. Didn't see Roman." She glanced at her brother. "Nothing on Reese, but she still has the list of superheroes. And we're still locked out of the system, so we have no idea where the other heroes are—Skylar's working on it."

Kaz nodded. "I'll go help her, maybe track down Oliver. I'll tell you guys if we find anything."

"Okay," Chase murmured, still staring at the plume of smoke as if he could put it out with his mind.

"We'll be on standby if you need anything," Bree said quietly as she clasped Kaz's arm, casting a worried look at her brother. "We need to end this fast. It isn't long before he loses hope. And if that happens, we're all lost."

* * *

"Okay, what've we got?" Kaz asked loudly as the hyperlift slid open. Skylar whirled around as she let out a shriek, then immediately covered her face in embarrassment when she saw who it was.

"Kaz!" she chided. "Don't do that, especially not right now!"

"Sorry," he chuckled. "How're you feeling, Douglas?" Kaz turned to the inventor, who was hunched over the main console.

He seesawed his hand. "Like I got blown up from the inside by my son's evil fake ex-girlfriend. It isn't permanent, though, I already checked."

"That's fair, I guess," Kaz muttered, joining Skylar at the center console. "Any luck?"

"No," she sighed. "I'm locked out of my account. And yeah, I already tried yours and Oliver's. Where is he, by the way?"

"Don't know," he replied, slowly letting out a breath as he sank into a chair. "Lost track of him about half an hour ago, Bree said."

Skylar inhaled sharply, but nodded. "Okay. Okay, that's okay. We can find him… but not now. We almost got this."

Kaz frowned at her, shooting to his feet again. "'But not now'? Are you crazy? Yes, right now! That's my best friend out there! He could already be dead!"

"Exactly, Kaz!" Skylar exclaimed, taking a few steps forward until she was right in his face. "We don't know what's happening out there. We have no idea where he went or where he might be. The streets are crawling with shape-shifters. People are dying, Kaz! We can't set that aside for one person. Oliver wouldn't want that."

"Now I see why The Annihilator chose you as his second-in-command," Kaz replied quietly. "Efficient, aren't you? Ever the logical one."

Skylar's jaw dropped. Kaz _never_ brought up her time with The Annihilator, especially not as an argument. "Kaz, I don't like this any more than you do!"

"Of course," he said bitterly. "Because you've known him all your life. Because you've never had anyone else to rely on but him. Because he's the one person who has _ever_ felt like family to you. Because you don't know what you would do without him."

Skylar looked up at him, an argument poised on the tip of her tongue, but as soon as she saw his expression her words crumbled. The two boys had been through everything together. Oliver was her friend, yes, but their connection was nowhere near as strong as the one between his and Kaz's. And there was no other word for it… Kaz was _terrified_ he would lose his best friend. So she did the only thing she could think to do: she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Kaz. I know you're hurt, and I know you're worried. And trust me, I am too. I really do love Oliver, and I know you do, too. And yeah, I know that you've known him for so much longer than me. But you know what? You have to use that. _Think_. You know him best. What would Oliver do, if he didn't have comms and couldn't get back? Where would he go?"

Kaz chewed his lip, looking at her but not really seeing her. "He would… go somewhere I would know to look for. He's done it before. He would…" He cut himself, eyes widening. "I think I know. Stay here, work on the list. See if you can get through. I'll stay in touch." He snatched a comm set off of the desk before vanishing into one of the tunnels.

"That was a good pep talk," Douglas said from off to the side, and Skylar almost screamed again. She'd forgotten he was there. He grinned weakly at her. "Almost as good as mine."

Skylar shook her head, turning back to cyberdesk. At least his ego was intact.

* * *

"I can't stand this anymore," Bree snapped suddenly, breaking Chase out of his reverie.

He shook his head, trying to clear it. "What?"

"I can't just stand here, waiting for Oliver to get back, waiting for reinforcements, letting the shape-shifters destroy the city!" she exclaimed. She held up her phone. "I tried calling Leo, to see if they were going to get here soon. Rodissius blocked all of our communication. The direct lines on the comm sets still will work, but Oliver wasn't connected through that, which is why he lost us." Bree pocketed her phone, walking to the railing. "Besides, that fire isn't going out, and it'll spread if we don't hurry. I'm going out."

"Bree," Chase protested, "you can't."

"We don't have any other options, Chase!" she cried.

He shook his head again. "There's always another option."

Bree sighed. "Not this time." Pulling herself over the railing, she studied the ground as Chase almost had a heart attack.

"What are you doing?" he yelped.

"Trying to get a straight shot through the city," she replied determinedly, holding up her hands and summoning her proton rings.

This time, Chase understood. As his sister drew her elbows back, he quickly said, "Bree." She looked at him questioningly, and he swallowed hard. "Be careful. Please."

She forced a small smile onto her face. "Aren't I always?"

And then she was off, throwing her proton disks in rapid succession as she ran across them, running across the bridge she formed as she went that dissolved as she passed over it. As she reached another building, she ran up the side, landing on the roof before leaping off the other side, her shadowy form disappearing.

"Be careful," he said again, although she was long gone.

* * *

"Chase, Bree," Skylar said into the intercom, "Douglas and I could use your help down here. We had an idea." Clicking it off, she turned back to Douglas. "Will it really work?"

"I think so," he replied, groaning slightly as he straightened from where he'd been standing over a microscope. "I was good in Chem, and I studied shape-shifting for bionics for years, so… yeah, it'll work."

The hyperlift slid open, and Chase stepped out—alone. "Bree went to put out the big fire across town," he explained before they could ask. "What did you find?"

"Well, there was no way to get into the superhero system," Skylar replied. "We're officially locked out. But Douglas was thinking—"

"—that since shape-shifters reconfigure their very molecules, all we have to do is—and I'll simplify it for the non-scientist in here—un-reconfigure it." He gestured at the test tubes on the table. "So I developed a serum, similar to the one you made replicating their powers, that actually does the opposite: it negates it, forcing them into their original form. It'll even work on Rodissius to stun him, because he still contains traces of shape-shifting DNA despite his powers being neutralized."

"That's perfect!" Chase enthused, perking up for the first time in the days since their world had gone dark. "But how can we spread it to all the shape-shifters? They're all in cloud form. We can't touch them."

"But do you know what this tower has?" Douglas grinned. "A few electrical conductors on the roof, and an electricity-proof alien."

"I can draw some lightning from the big storm above us and charge the serum, the disperse it in the air," Skylar explained. "We have enough serum to spread it through the whole city."

"Perfect," Chase sighed, sounding like the weight of the worlds had been lifted from his shoulders. It probably had. "Let's do it."

* * *

Bree landed hard on the ground, rolling before tumbling to her feet. A few people were stumbling around, but she cleared them out within three seconds. In another ten, she'd run around the fires and put them out with her speed vacuum. Activating her flashlight hands, she ventured into the ruins of surrounding buildings, checking for survivors.

"Huh," she chuckled softly. "It's a comic book store." Figures she'd end up here.

"What're you doing here?" a voice called, and she turned to see—

"Kaz? Why are _you_ here?"

He grinned sheepishly, extinguishing the fire in his hands, leaving only her flashlight hands to provide them light. "I was hoping Oliver would be here. It's silly, I know… but this is how it all started. We always seem to end up here. It only seems fair that it ends here, too."

"Well, you weren't wrong," another voice said from behind Kaz.

"Oliver!" Bree cried, relieved beyond words. Kaz didn't even opt for speaking, instead throwing himself at his best friend and hugging him tightly.

Suddenly, Bree's comms sparked to life, and her brother's voice flooded her ear. _"Bree, we have a plan. Don't come back to the tower just yet, it'll be a little… electrical for a while."_

"Chase, what—?"

 _"No time to explain. We're doing it. Skylar, now!"_

There was a flash of bright white light followed by a crack of thunder, and then a lightning bolt streaked out of the stormy sky and directly struck the roof of the tower. Bree stepped back outside, Kaz and Oliver trailing her, watching the lightning turn a strange pulsing purple. It seemed sporadic, however, like there wasn't enough.

As if reading her mind, Chase said, _"Bree, give us a boost!"_

She threw her hands up in the air, and before she even registered what she was doing, she had already hurled a bolt of lightning directly into the storm. Another crack of thunder, and then the lightning seemed to rise into the air.

"That's Skylar," Kaz said suddenly. "She's _in_ the lightning."

Before anyone else could get a word out, there was one more flash of light, and the purple coloring disappeared, and Skylar—was it really her?—dropped to the rooftop.

 _"She's okay,"_ Chase said immediately.

"Huh," Oliver raised his shoulders in a half-shrug. "That was anticlimactic."

A sphere of purple light suddenly erupted from Davenport tower, expanding over the entire city before fading. Up in the sky, all at once, Bree could see the black swarms solidify and drop to the ground.

 _I'm glad the students will be here to help in the cleanup_ , she thought giddily.

"We won," Kaz pointed out, sounding shocked. "I can't believe we won. I don't even know what they did, but we won."

"We won," Bree repeated, savoring the words. The best words she could ever say. "We won."

* * *

 **I'm still on hiatus from here, more or less, but I'd love to see some reviews and I'll be sure to try to respond! Was this anything like what you imagined? Did it paint a good picture! Oh, and you can go vote for this or one of the other stories on the Elite Force Wiki, as long as you have a Google account.**

 **Hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
